Britain's future Olympic rowing teams will benefit from the increased investment and exposure that will follow the decision to stage the women's Boat Race over the same course and on the same day as the men's event from 2015, according to the Cambridge graduate and Olympic silver medallist Annie Vernon.

"I think it'll absolutely be a positive thing for the British team," said Vernon, who rowed for Cambridge in 2003 and for Great Britain in 2008. "Like anything in life, investment is what makes success. The money will pay for more coaches, better coaches, better equipment, better boats, training camps, nutritional support, medical support – all things we take for granted on the UK team but haven't been there at university level. They'll be able to upgrade everything."

The men have historically received much more generous funding than the women, with clear consequences at the Olympics: a total of 19 current or former Oxford students competed in the rowing regatta - under the flags of various countries including the UK - at the 2008 Games in Beijing, winning eight medals, but of those just three were women, the best of whom finished fifth. In 2004 their eight rowers won four medals for various countries, but the one woman finished ninth in a semi-final. [See footnote re Cambridge]

"The women's boat club doesn't have nearly the same coaching or logistical infrastructure behind them," said Sir Matthew Pinsent, one of the successful Oxford graduates in Athens. "They cycle to training, they have to run their own cars to drive to a race, they have to buy their own kit and pay for their own entry fees."

But under the terms of a new sponsorship deal with BNY Mellon – an asset management company whose subsidiary, Newton, has sponsored the women's race since last March – the men's and women's teams are to be funded equally. The BBC has also suggested that it will start to broadcast the women's event live.

"When I was rowing for Cambridge in 2003, we were rowing out of a lean-to at the side of a boathouse, and the men had a purpose-built affair with a heated floor," said Vernon. "I had no problem with that – the men have had their boat race for 150 years and it's one of the most iconic events in the British sporting calendar. Their funding matched that level of exposure. The women's race was on a totally different scale, but hopefully within a few years the women's crews will be able to enjoy similar facilities."

The move brings one of the most traditional of Britain's major sporting events into line with other sports which have embraced equality of opportunity and reward. But the transformation of the women's race will involve more than money and a change in location: it is currently held over a 2km course at Henley-on-Thames, but the so-called Championship Course, over which the men have competed since 1845, runs from Putney to Mortlake and is more than three times as long at 6.8km.

According to Robert Gillespie, chairman of the Boat Race Company, organisers "thought about and rejected the idea that it should be in any way different from the men's race". But the three-year delay before the women's event makes its move is designed to allow rowers to come to terms with this and other changes.

"The women's programme has had almost no funding and has nothing like the same infrastructure," he said. "To produce genuine parity we want athletes trained to the same level. We believed it was prudent to leave some time for the benefits of the investment programme to filter through before moving the race to the very high profile that it will have in 2015."

Paul Davies, who has executive-produced the BBC's Boat Race coverage since it won the rights back from ITV in 2009, said: "The women coming to the tideway is hugely important for us, and we've spoken for many years about doing it. I think one of the crucial things about making the move is that we cover it as a proper race. I don't think we can do this in a token way."

The race between the men's reserve boats, Isis and Goldie, will retain its place on the day of the men's race. The increase from two races to three will provide a considerable logistical challenge, not least because of the timing of the Thames tides. The men's race starts an hour before high tide, to allow the crews to row with the fastest possible current. There is a window of perhaps an hour in which ideal racing conditions exist, and the reserve crews currently race half an hour before the main race. The order in which the three races will be held from 2015 has not yet been determined.

• This article was amended on 9-10 February 2012. The picture was replaced, so that it showed Annie Vernon, as captioned, not Anna Watkins. Explanations were inserted for the totals given for competitors with Oxford links at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. [Regarding the University of Cambridge, the other competitor in the Boat Races: the Oympics competitor tallies in this article are for Oxford only, because global figures for all rowers with present or past Cambridge links at Athens and Beijing were not available. Representing the UK specifically, two women with Cambridge links won silver medals at Athens, and one won a bronze; at Beijing, one Cambridge woman won a silver for the UK and one, a bronze.]